


Beginnings

by cloudedhue



Series: Neriya Shepard, Gunslinger [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Blended some canon with bananas and made you this smoothie, Ghost being a crabby cake, I'm always bad at tags I'm sorry, OC Story, first resurrection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21903262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudedhue/pseuds/cloudedhue
Summary: These are the first moments of my OC Hunter, Neri. She follows a lot of the main game storyline though with slight variations to accomodate her personality and struggles. Hope you enjoy!
Series: Neriya Shepard, Gunslinger [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1577722
Kudos: 2





	Beginnings

The tiny Ghost flew across the place, scanning unrelenting- sometimes three times, just to be throughout- in hopes of finally finding its Guardian. This was Fallen territory, so it had to be quick, stealthy, and careful.

While it scanned the scorched corpses that had died inside the cars amassed at the ruins of the Cosmodrome, it chirped with excitement- one of the first and few times it would ever do such- as it found a spark in one of them- it has never felt something similar, so it understood what it needed to do.

"Preparing to resurrect... let's hope this goes well. I've never done it." Its comment was dry, but nervous too. How would the Guardian be like? Without much time to think, the process was completed. "Ahem... um. Eyes up, Guardian. Been looking for you for a long time."

The Guardian's confusion was more than evident when the tiny, floating "thing" began talking to her. She stretched her limbs, moving every inch of her body as if newly acquired- and it was, to a certain degree. The Ghost looked at her with a mix of amusement and annoyance, as she was not paying much attention to it, but instead looking around, taking in her surroundings. It tried talking to her again. "So... I am a Ghost. Your Ghost. And, uhm, you've been dead for a long time, so I'll fill you in on the details of what's going on later, but now we have to go to the City- we aren't safe here."

As if to prove the Ghost's claims, a loud, bone-chilling roar could be heard across the site. The Guardian instinctively crouched down, scanning the area, but her eyes were still adjusting to everything- she cleared her throat and spoke for the first time. "What is your name?"

If Ghosts could show confusion, this one would right now. I guess it had heard about Guardians naming their Ghosts, but had not expected to have a name so soon. "I don't have one. You can name me if you want, do you remember yours? But it's better if we get to cover as soon as possible, this is Fallen territory, we can go to that wall and-"

"Cloud. I like clouds. Do you?"

Okay. Names are important. Though nothing to fret over when your recently obtained life again, but okay. "They're... nice?"

"Good. You are Cloud then. I think... my name? Neriya. Or Neri? Maybe both- or neither. I like Neri, though. Your voice is very nice, are you a "he" Cloud?"

As another roar, now closer, accompanied her question, the now-named Cloud began heading to the Cosmodrome's wall without his Guardian. Not even five minutes after finally finding his Guardian, and he already wanted out of this. "You can call me whatever you like, but we need to leave this place immediately, there are Fallen out here, and they know what you are, so they will want to kill you. You and me both. So move with me or prepare for the worst."

Cloud's pride prohibited him from turning around to check if she was following, but the lack of sounds was making him feel anxious. He's heard the stories of other Ghosts having issues to control their Guardian, which usually led to a lot of destruction, resurrections, and in worst cases, permanent death. He tried to move his eye to the side as much as he could, trying not to give away his concern but failing, only to find Neri one step behind him. She abruptly stopped when she noticed him looking her way. "Everything okay?" She asked, confused, but Cloud only limited himself to stare at her in even more confusion. 

"When did you- have you been walking all this- no sound, no... Uh. Sorry, no, it's all good. Let's hurry." He resumed his way into the wall and, having finally reached their destination, transmat himself out. When he heard Neri call out for him, he reassured her of his location. "It's alright, I'm still here, just- hiding. If I die, it'd be the end for both of us. Let's find you some weapons and try to get us out of here."

It was easier said than done, but they were able to find a rifle and a hand cannon after a bit of scavenging. The weapons felt natural in Neri's hands, which Cloud silently thanked, but her tendency to get close and personal with the Fallen they encountered left him more nervous than before. She was borderline suicidal, he was absolutely sure, and most definitely a Hunter; he was at least 85% sure- agile, fast, precise, energetic, and liked to melee brawl, which did remind him of a Titan. A lot of punching happened before they got on the ship, none of it pretty, but very practical.

It was only when they found an old, rusty Arcadia ship when she spoke again. "I can fix it, do we have enough time? Running low on ammo, not sure how many more Fallen are there." Without waiting for confirmation, she climbed a ladder to get on top of the ship, opening a control pad and started to fiddle with cables. 

Okay. Maybe his Guardian was not the smartest one in the room. "Uhm. Guardian? The circuits are fried, it hasn't been used in centuries, why don't you let me- wait, wait, how are you doing that?" Neri just shrugged and silently kept working while Cloud scanned the ship- wires were now working, she replaced most of them with spares from a nearby box, and the ship did seem trusty enough to turn on. Okay. Maybe his Guardian was the smartest one in the room. However, just a small issue still remained. 

"No gas. Should have expected that." Her gloves were covered in oil when she muttered to herself, wiping a thin layer of sweat off of her forehead and replacing it with oil. "It hasn't made a jump in a while, considering the heavy decay, but it can fly for a couple of hours before it shuts down completely or blows up." Her eyes flew from her work to him, and Cloud suddenly felt almost timid under her gaze, but there was no way he would show it. He did the Ghost-equivalent of rising up his chin and held her stare without blinking- not that he needed to, anyway, but it was recommended to make the non-Ghost beings more relaxed near them. "The thing you did- you brought me back to life, can you do that again? In case we need to- it's not the most stable-"

Her voice was cut off when different-pitched roars came from seemingly all directions of the place. Fallen were closing in- and quickly. Cloud hurried to her side and scanned the ship again- functional, it won't jump orbit, but it'll get them to the City. Now it was his turn to replace the gas. "Don't worry, I can make it work."

Neri jumped down from the ship, cannon in hand, her eyes flying from each space big enough where something could crawl from to the next one. "Can you make gas appear out of thin air? If not, there won't be much you can do." The Guardian heard the tiniest "hmpf" coming from her Ghost and smiled, amused. It was clear he had a temper, which only made more enjoyable the thought of teasing him. Seconds later after disappearing inside the ship, plus a couple of rounds loaded into Fallen brave enough to get close, and Neri could hear his voice.

"Everything working well, ready to transmat you out." And before she could even ask what that meant, less than a second later, she encountered herself in the ship's cockpit. A moment of panic and disorientation later, they were flying out of the Cosmodrome- neither Cloud nor her flying the craft. He also was able to remove the rust from the turbines, Neri noticed, as they sounded better than she expected. Before getting too far away from the building, she caught a glimpse of the biggest Fallen she had seen, moving into where the ship used to me, looking at them. "Big fella," Neri muttered under her breath, catching Cloud's attention, and he nodded.

"That's right. He's a Fallen Captain, they're... lethal, to say the least. We're lucky we got out of there just before he came." After not received a comment from his Guardian anymore, he took the time to fill her in with some of the knowledge about Guardians, Ghost, and the Last City. Minutes later, and several speeches were given as he directed the ship to the Last City, and it appeared Cloud would not run out of words anytime soon.

"In short terms- you are a Traveler's Chosen, defender of humanity, so when we get to the City, you'll-"

She was sleeping. Annoyance grew on him again, but he didn't continue nor tried to wake her up; Cloud just limited himself to drop onto the flight control system, staring at the Awoken that had become his Guardian. She was quiet, sharp, dangerous and liked to stray from topics, important ones, to focus on irrelevant stuff; she seemed to have retained technical memories from engineering and combat, plus she has general knowledge about the world- which was good, as he only wanted to teach her about the essentials of being a Guardian.

Not shortly after, the Last City was finally closing in. Excitement and nervousness both filled him- he wanted to hope for the best when she would meet the Vanguard and the rest of Guardians, but expecting the best wasn't usually his style. Quite the contrary, in fact. 

"Guardian! I, uh, Neri?" Why was he getting nervous about talking to her.

Tired eyes opened to meet his, following with a yawn. "So it wasn't a dream. Okay." Hands rubbed her face trying to fully wake up before Cloud felt them in his shell. Wait, what was happening?

"Neri? What exactly are you doing? We're getting closer to the City, I'll transmat you out of the ship so we can go meet-"

"HOLY SHIT THIS ISN'T A DREAM, WHAT THE FUCK-"

Wait, a dream, really? And now she was touching him all over, playing as if he was a damn toy. Her eyes full of surprise and excitement, as if they hadn't been together for a couple of hours now.

"Stop."

Cloud's tone of voice made her drop her hands, though she still wished to fiddle with her new-found friend. It was also comical to hear such a low voice coming from a tiny... robot? What exactly was he? And... what exactly was her? Noticing her blue skin filled with swirls and sparkles distracted her from Cloud's death stare until he spoke to her again, making it clear how annoyed he was.

"You thought all of this was a dream? So you really didn't listen to anything I said about Guardians, Ghosts, and the Traveler?"

Neri took off her gloves to keep appreciating her skin, still amazed to see her motions matched the fingers she was looking at. She was blue... and she sparkled. Her amazement lasted until Cloud came into view again, now positioning himself between her eyes and her hands. Maybe she didn't have a lot of general knowledge. "Can you take this seriously? You can see your skin later. Right now, we're meeting up with the Vanguard."

Vanguard... she's heard something about that. "Are you talking about art? Because I'm interested in art, but I'm sure it could wait, right?" Neri offered her little friend a smile, but his eye was showing more and more annoyance each passing minute. Maybe he wasn't a fan of smiles?

Cloud's death stare answered her question. "I'll transmat you in a couple of seconds, and you'll follow me to the Tower where you will meet the Hunter Vanguard, as sadly you are one, so he can assign you fieldwork. You are the first and last line of defense of what's left of Humanity, and the City is the last place the Traveler can protect. Do you understand this?"

Incapable of daring to say something back, Neri just nodded. Clouded seemed pleased with this, but not before his deadly stare began again. Maybe she wasn't all that quiet. "I'll explain all I can on the way to the Vanguard room, so pay attention. I won't repeat myself twice, got it?"

Again, Neri's nodding appeared to be the best answer she could give right now- or maybe always. Before she could blink again, she was already on the ground while the ship took away without any of them- she guessed it was safe to assume Cloud was doing all that... mumbo jumbo. Cool.

Without a second word, Cloud took off alone, talking to himself about that important thing called "Traveler" and Neri's duty as a Guardian. She supposed this was her cue to follow him. Her attention was divided between his tales, the colorful people they were passing by, and the different banners that decorated the pillars. Whatever this place was- it felt nice. It felt warm.


End file.
